AT&T planning to let developers pay for users' smartphone data usage

AT&T has revealed that it is working on a system that would allow mobile software developers to pay for users' bandwidth use, in an approach likened to toll-free calling.

John Donovan, AT&T senior executive vice president of technology and network operations, said in an interview withThe Wall Street Journal that his company is exploring ways to make money from increased data use on their networks, while also avoiding price hikes that could draw the ire of subscribers. Donovan likened the proposed system to the use of 800 numbers for free calls.

"(It) would say, if you take this app, this app will come without any network usage," Donovan reportedly said while at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

AT&T executives believe the system could be a win for both consumers and the carrier itself, allowing third parties to shoulder some of the costs of mobile bandwidth.

He gave the example of a user who wants to download a movie on the go, but who has nearly reached their monthly data plan cap. The content provider selling the movie could cover the cost of the bandwidth needed to download the film, so that the user could still make the purchase and not go over their limit.

AT&T began capping smartphone data plans in June of 2010, just before the launch of the iPhone 4. Previously, iPhone owners were offered unlimited data for $30 per month. Its chief competitor, Verizon, also has capped data plans with a tiered pricing structure.

Last year, AT&T also began throttling the mobile data speeds of its heaviest users. In the U.S., Sprint is the only official nationwide iPhone carrier that does not cap or throttle mobile data usage.

I didn't think there was any bandwidth left and that was the reason for throttling everyone over 2gb? seems they wanted to herd everyone into lower data usage and sell the excess, in essence selling the same data twice.

It's actually a clever idea. Not that it's going to replace conventional apps or that everyone would use it, but I could picture some scenarios where an app developer would want to pay for bandwidth and include it in the cost of the app.

The example given was a movie download. The win for whoever sells the movie, is that they'll sell more movies. The price of the bandwidth would be built into the price of the movie. Presumably the developer or whoever will be buying data wholesale and won't be paying $15/gb or whatever AT&T charges. A similar system could work for in-app purchases, the developer sells more in-app add-ons and part of the price is for bandwidth. It's another option, I don't see why this is a bad idea if a developer WANTS to offer it.

AT&T wouldn't be REQUIRING developers to do this, they would let them have the option to add this feature. Imagine Netflix offering an in-app purchase allowing you to stream unlimited movies without going against your data allotment for a few dollars a month. I can also see Verizon getting in on this as well. To be able to implement this AT&T would have to be working with Apple to implement the system. I can imagine Verizon jumping on the bandwagon if it is successful.

Yep, I can see it now: "This app is not available on AT&T in the U.S."

Or... this app (movie?) is available on AT&T for $4.99 w/o data charge or $14.97 w/ data charges.

Does AT&T really think the content developers are going pay the data usage to AT&T without passing it on to the consumer? You are right that content will not be available to AT&T. If AT&T thinks it can make more money on data than they already are, their bonkers!

AT&T wouldn't be REQUIRING developers to do this, they would let them have the option to add this feature. Imagine Netflix offering an in-app purchase allowing you to stream unlimited movies without going against your data allotment for a few dollars a month. I can also see Verizon getting in on this as well. To be able to implement this AT&T would have to be working with Apple to implement the system. I can imagine Verizon jumping on the bandwagon if it is successful.

If ATT can sell that Data to those companies at a cheap price, why can't it offer that same amount of Data to its consumers at the same price? So, let's say they charge netflix 1$ for movie, well, that means they could give you 1gb for 1$...